NOVEMBER, 24


By Bob Felton

Ok, let’s go with some comments about the 11th Edition of the GMA. And first of all, congratulations, Charlie Kiggs: your predictions weren’t so far this time from what finally happened (for once).

My secret confidants at CMP have told me how votes went… so I can share with you some inside information about it.

First, the winners of the night…

It has obviously been a Josh Collins’ Edition. Three of his movies got awards, a total of 6 at the end: 3 for ‘The Rock Star’, 2 for ‘Fireflies In The Jelly-Jars’ and 1 for ‘Earth 3K’. So Mr. Collins had a great night at last at the GMA.

While past editions voters went for big productions like ‘Devil Trigger’ or ‘The Gunpowder Plot’, this time it was the other way around: voters preferred to support low budget adult movies and ignore the big ones. That’s ok with me. After my favorite movie of the Season, ‘The Dark Tower: Waste Lands’, didn’t get the rain of nominations it deserved, I didn’t care much about this Edition. When voters will recognize the quality of that wonderful saga, damn it?

‘The Rock Star’ becomes the third flop in box office that makes it at Best Picture after ‘Nagasaki Daydreams’ and ‘The 6th Avenue Castaways’. Sam Mendes’ movie turned into the undisputable winner of the night winning the three main categories (Best Actor, Director and Picture). But ‘The Miracle Men’ also deserves a special mention: it won in its three nominations, a 100 % of success, jumping to the top of the list of awarded movies, going past some other more nominated productions.

So yes, it was Collins’ night, but it was also James Bradley’s night. Bradley got his fourth Best Screenplay GMA and not only ‘The Miracle Men’ but also ‘Crossovers’ got a recognition with the Best Cast award.

On the acting categories, no surprises and less tough duels than expected:

Daniel Day-Lewis finally won a GMA, although Kucan didn’t stay far in the number of votes.

Abigail and Jeff were the favorites to win and they didn’t disappoint. Their rivals stayed very far away in terms of votes. Abigail finally made Collins’ dream come true: she is the first young talent to make it at a main acting category. Now, I’m curious to see where this will take her in the future. And, against what could be expected, Andy Garcia didn’t put into big trouble Jeff’s victory at the end.

Liotta had a tougher time than expected. Bob Balaban fought as a brave underdog candidate and almost took the Best Supporting Actor statue from him. On the girls’ side, Bening reached a comfortable win.

The Best Starring Couple category was won almost unanimously by Giamatti and Ferrell.

At the Production Design category, Harry Stark and his group of designers must be happy. ‘Silent Hill’ was the only movie poster among the nominees with some designing creativity in it, as the other two (‘Robots Of Down’ and ‘The House Of Spirits’) were just a simple ‘picture and texts’ designs.

On the Best Director category, there was a tighter duel. Mendes won Scott at the end and Ratner didn’t have a chance. Same for Best Picture: the final duel was between ‘Gaspipe’ and ‘The Rock Star’ but here the victory of this one was wider than in Best Director.

All in all, I think the choices are fair and I agree with most of them (once ‘The Dark Tower’ was ignored at nominations phase, although at least it made it at Best Adapatation). I like the GMA supporting drama and adult movies and not only big budget productions.

On the side of the losers of the night…

‘Robots Of Dawn’ joins a selected CMP’s club: the one with the movies that get 5 nominations and no win at the end. Great movies like ‘Hollyweird’, ‘Fallen Kings’ or ‘The Great War Series: Darkening Skies’ are honorable members of that group.

‘Gaspipe’ and ‘Command & Conquer’ didn’t have a night as happy as expected. ‘Gaspipe’ only took one award out of its 5 nominations and ‘Command & Conquer’ didn’t make it at any of its 4 nominations. Both are great movies but there is no room for all to win…

Zach Braff joins the list of multi-nominated talents that can’t have a statue at home. It has been the third time he is nominated. Surprisingly, Braff got lot of votes for his nomination and, as it sometimes happens, when voting for the winners came, his candidacy lost strength and he ended up far behind Liotta and Balaban.

Kate Beckinsale was fighting for two awards: Best Starring Couple and Best Actress. But both flew away…

And Ridley Scott saw for the second time in a row how the Best Director statue went to somebody else. Two consecutive ceremonies faking a smile may be too much for him…

Josh Collins was the man of the night. But he has to be here too, at the defeated side. Although his movies succeeded, he couldn’t make it at Best Screenplay. The close run with Bradley ended up with him in second position, while Matt Kubrick never had a real chance.

Other candidates like George Clooney, Robin Wright-Penn and Tilda Swinton, who arrived with a strong support to the final trio, became weakly supported at the final voting.

But, you know, the question is: what do you prefer? Being nominated and then lose or not being nominated at all?

Well, the GMA gain prestige with this list of winners. And also the crisis suffered past Edition – when the number of voters reduced significantly – has been overcome, as this Edition has had a wide number of voters again. That’s a sign of how prestigious and important these awards are becoming edition after edition.

Congratulations to all the winners! And to the rest, better luck next time!